Transcending Boundaries

Forging a New Era of Leadership and Impact

Boundary-spanning leadership is the capability to create direction, alignment, and commitment across boundaries in service of a higher vision or goal. RWJF is working with its grantees, staff, and partners, to cultivate a rising generation of leaders from various backgrounds, disciplines, and organizations, who are capable of spanning traditional boundaries and building new alliances to create a culture of health—where getting healthy and staying healthy is a fundamental American value that everyone can attain.

About the Foundation’s Investment
RWJF has created an initiative to incorporate boundary-spanning leadership methods into the design of existing RWJF programs and to impart these skills to Foundation staff, grantees, and community leaders.

The new investment differs from the Foundation’s past leadership efforts. The focus is not on developing specific fields or individual careers, but on building a cadre of leaders with the skills and competencies needed to help advance a culture of health through cross-sector collaboration. RWJF’s vision is that this sort of leadership training will become a signature type of support offered to its grantees. Current pilot programs include:

Community Coalition Leadership Program (CCLP): The Community Coalition Leadership Program is a year-long, team-based training program for RWJF grantees who use coalitions and other multi-sector approaches to help organizations and communities fundamentally improve health and health care. Each team benefits from the ongoing guidance of a trained local coach who helps them apply the appropriate boundary-spanning leadership practices to advance their work.

Boundary-Spanning Leadership Program (BSLP): The Boundary-Spanning Leadership Program is a two-and-a-half-day individual leadership training course offered to a broader set of RWJF grantees nominated from across the Foundation’s teams and portfolios.

The two pilots began in the fall of 2012 and are developed and managed in conjunction with the Center for Creative Leadership. In addition, RWJF staff members are receiving the training to help inform their work.